Reply #34: But will anti-Bush conservatives vote for a Democrat? [View All]

I'm afraid that they won't, particularly because of the long-held (and often misguided) belief by conservatives that any Democratic candidate is a 'big gubmint' candidate.

So just as we progressives will hold our noses and vote ABB, I fear that many conservatives/libertarians will vote Bush because they're really voting ABADemocrat, sadly. I have spoken with several conservatives/libertarians who cannot bring themselves to vote for a Democrat, despite how much they've come to hate Bush. If you actually grill them on the particulars of the current administration and the bills being shoved through Congress by neo-cons, they can't stand them. But that's not enough to make them vote against Bush.

I think it would be lovely to see the party make a move to actually _explain_ to these people that the platform of the Democratic party is not solely a mantra of 'big gubmint', higher taxes, gun control, etc. If the time/effort/money were spent in this direction, I think you could see the con/lib equivalent of the Reagan Democrat phenomenon in the 2004 elections.